Chemicals You Didn’t Know Caused Hormonal Imbalance In Men & Women

There’s a high probability that you are consuming foods that are causing an hormonal disorder, such as an imbalance in your body. The only way this may not be the case is if you’re eating and drinking organically and naturally all the time. In this article you will find out that hormonal imbalance in men & women is quite common.

How To Check For Hormone Imbalance

Hormonal imbalance in women is generally more prevalent because of the many foods and products that are estrogen mimickers; which then lead to hormonal imbalances. symptoms of hormonal imbalance in females are as follows:

Hot Flashes & Night Sweats

PMS (Premenstrual syndrome)

Weight Gain

Mood Swings

Insomnia

Depression

Fatigue

Endometriosis

Low Libido

Fibrosis

Vaginal Dryness

Foggy Memory

Hormonal imbalances in men is also very real too, because of products in our everyday environment some of the symptoms of male hormone imbalance are possible side effects, such as:

Low sperm count or

Poor quality sperm

Erectile dysfunction

Hair loss

Low libido

Fatigue or lack of energy

Night sweats or hot flashes

Memory loss

Mood swings or irritability

Heart palpitations

Muscle loss or weakness

Sleep apnea or insomnia

Depression or anxiety

Constipation or increased bowel movements

Increased body fat

Gynecomastia (development of breasts in men)

These are most of the symptoms of hormonal changes, so if you suffer from any of these it may be due to high or low hormone levels.

Here are some of the products that can be found in your everyday food capable of causes imbalances:

Phthalates

There is a high possibility that you consume Phthalates and have no idea that you’re doing so.

What Do Phthalates Do?

Phthalates have the ability to disrupt endocrine, products containing phthalatescan normally be found in soft plastic, especially food and drink containers, the most common types being the soft squishy plastic water bottles that most of us like to consume from.

More specifically Phthalates are able to cause increased cell death, which means sperm cells die earlier than they should.

The resulting effects are that a man’s sperm count is lowered, as well as the quality of the sperm.

Other issues that may occur from Phthalates consumption are:

Birth defects in fetal males

Men and women developing thyroid problems, diabetes, and obesity.

How To Avoid Phthalates

The best way to avoid Phthalates is to stop storing foods in plastic containers.

Avoiding plastic water bottle use and not allowing children to chew on certain kid’s toys.

When you see skin care products that have “fragrance” on there package as one of their ingredients this could be phthalates that you’re putting on your body.

BPA

BPA (Bisphenol A) can disrupt endocrine by behaving like sex hormones inside the body. Other things that BPA can cause are:

Dioxin

If Dioxin is in the uterus it can permanently lower male sperm count as a man ages. It can also cause the quality of sperm to be less than normal. Dioxin can also cause cancer and immune dysfunction.

Unfortunately Dioxin does not degrade in the body with ease, so it has a tendency to build up over time. What’s worse is that general food supply is filled with dioxin.

Foods such as milk, eggs, meat, butter, and fish can all contain dioxins, it can be found in the fatty tissues of animals. If you are a vegetarian this can limit your exposure to the aforementioned products, and in turn reduce the concentration of dioxins in your body. Also eating an organic natural diet is a great way to stay clear of Dioxin.

Perchlorate

You will be surprised to know that Perchlorate is used to make fuel for rockets; but even more shocking is that it’s found in a lot of food stuff particularly in milk.

The negatives of Perchlorate, is that it competes with iodine causing an imbalance in your thyroid gland.

Some of the more serious effects of Perchlorate is that it causes poorer organ and brain development in babies and toddlers.

If you want to reduce perchlorate levels in your body, one of the best counters are a reverse osmosis filter in your drinking water system.

Another way to counter Perchlorate is to have good levels of iodine in your system. A good source of this is Iodized salt.

Atrazine

Atrazine is an herbicide that is use predominantly in the growth of many cornfields. This herbicide can also be found in the water supply from the crops and farming runoff.

Some of the adverse effects of Atrazine are as follows:

It has been found to feminize male frogs and there is evidence to suspect that it contributes to breast tumors, prostate cancer and inflammation, as well as having the ability slow down puberty.

You can only stop Atrazine from entering your system by drinking filtered water and by avoiding corn and corn products, unless organically grown.

Lead

Lead is a heavy metal that is most toxic to children and women that are pregnant. It is capable of causing many different hormonal changes in the body as well as being able to cause birth defects.

Lead also causes the following:

Lower IQ,

Miscarriages,

Increased blood pressure

Preterm birth,

Problems in the nervous system,

kidneys damage.

Studies with Lead on animals showed that it decreased the sex hormones in their bodies. Which leads to imbalance of hormones in the reproductive system.

Where Lead Can Be Found?

Lead is present in old chipped paint which can be ingested by children, it is also present in the water supply.

To avoid consuming Lead you will need to eat healthy and avoid old, chipped paint. You can avoid Lead in water by using a filter that filters out heavy metals.

Fire Retardants

The chemicals that are found in fire retardant materials have notably been linked to contamination’s.

These chemicals, are also able to cause thyroid hormone disruption, and reduce the IQ in children.

Fire retardants are very difficult to get rid of, even though many have been banned by the government. This has not stopped them being one of the leading chemicals for hormonal problems.

It is near impossible to avoid getting flame retardant chemicals in your system.

It is possible to reduce levels of Fire Retardants by getting rid of house dust, which is the major carrier of these chemicals.

If you’re in the process of planning to replace your carpet or reupholster furniture, it’s important that you’re aware that flame-retardants found in the padding of these items can get in your body when you are replacing these items in your home.

Arsenic

Arsenic is a chemical found in lots of foods and drinking water, although it is not supposed to be lethal in the quantities that are found in these products.

That being said small amounts of arsenic are known to lead to various types of cancer, such as bladder, lung, and skin cancer. Arsenic is also able to interfere with your bodys glucocorticoids which means you can expect weight changes, poor immune system, protein waste, insulin resistance, childhood growth retardation, osteoporosis, and high blood pressure.

To reduce the concentration amounts of arsenic in your system you’ll need to drink filtered water.

Mercury

Mecury is a metal that is considered toxic. It is most popularly found in many species of fish, these fish have been contaminated because of ongoing coal burning.

Mercury should be avoided by pregnant women as it can cause a number of issues such as causing poor brain development in the fetus.

Mercury also has the ability to attach it’s self to specific female hormones, which can lead to an irregular menstrual cycle and interfere with ovulation.

In both males and females mercury is linked to the development of diabetes because it is able to bind itself to the islet cells in the pancreas.

The easiest way to avoid Mecury is to reduce fish consumption.

PFCs (Perfluorinated Chemicals)

PFCs are used to make non-stick cooking items. This chemical is also found in the environment a lot, which means that most people have it in their bodies.

The worst thing about PFCs are that they’re not degraded in the environment, which means it’s able to stay in the food and water supply for decades.

They can also interfere with sex hormone levels in both men and women.

How To Avoid PFCs

There’s only one way to reduce exposure to PFCs, which is by avoiding the use of non-stick pans as well as the water-resistant coating often put on furniture, carpets and some clothing.

Organophosphate Pesticides

Organophosphate is a pesticide commonly used on crops. It’s purpose is to stop pests from eating crops that are being grown.

This pesticide can interfere with testosterone and thyroid hormones in both men and women for this reason it should be avoided.

To avoid organophosphate your best course of action is to eat only foods that are all-organic and choose fruits and vegetables that have been thoroughly washed but preferably, not grown with the use of organophosphates at all.

Glycol Ethers

The effects on humans are its ability to adversely affect the reproductive organs of fetuses in mothers if they are exposed to it.

Ethyl glycols is also able to affect blood and the sperm count in males.

Children that are exposed to glycol ethers are more likely to have allergies and asthma, especially if this chemical is in the paint in the children’s bedrooms.

If you are a man regularly exposed to glycol ethers this may result in the shrinkage of your testicles.

Hormone Testing

Hormone Saliva Test

The Saliva test for hormones can help identify some hormone imbalance but really is only for cortisol levels. For other imbalances it’s not so good according to Julie Chen MD.

She says that for other hormone levels the saliva test is likely to produce over- or under-estimation. Her recommended hormone level test is the serum blood test. But if you do take a Saliva test, cortisol salivary tests are more likely to be covered by insurance, as companies have recognized it is the most accurate.

In an example given by Julie about one of her patients suffering from low sex drive and erectile dysfunction. The patient in question took a saliva test after the serum test showed low levels in sexual hormones, where as the saliva test did not, in fact it said that he was healthy in that area.

The patient wanted to avoid erectile dysfunction treatment so was inclined to go with the saliva test results. On further analysis by Julie, she found that the serum test which this patient took was in fact accurate.

*Be aware that the medical opinion about whether a saliva or serum (blood) test is best; do vary, so you may have to have more than one test taken, to ensure accuracy*

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